


not a thing

by Foxwine



Series: Back to the Fold [6]
Category: Overwatch (Video Game)
Genre: 15-year-old McCree, 16-year-old Ashe, Alternate Universe - Canon, Deadlock Gang, Tattoos, Unreliable Narrator, aromantic Ashe, implied offscreen murder, just a moment in time, teenage outlaws, underage driving mentioned
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2021-02-11
Updated: 2021-02-11
Packaged: 2021-03-18 04:42:30
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 500
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/29362698
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Foxwine/pseuds/Foxwine
Summary: The other members of the Deadlock Gang have been making some assumptions about what McCree and Ashe are actually doing when they go away to talk alone.
Relationships: Elizabeth Caledonia Ashe & Jesse McCree
Series: Back to the Fold [6]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1180190
Comments: 4
Kudos: 6





	not a thing

**Author's Note:**

> All of the stories in the Back to the Fold series can be read on their own, though they all exist in the same shared timeline. They are not posted in chronological order because I'm putting them up in the order I recommend reading them in if one is reading the whole series. In the timeline, this is the earliest fic so far, set nearly two years before the Blackwatch/Overwatch raid on the Deadlock Gang.
> 
> As always, I'm indebted to my beloved partner Demolition, particularly in this case for asking "wait, they're not?" and instantly spawning this vignette in my head.

It was one of those rare, quiet moments for them. No other Deadlock members or B.O.B. around, just two teenagers sitting side-by-side on a bench, experimenting.

McCree was the one who leaned away first. “Nope,” he said, adjusting his hat from where it had been knocked askew from bumping against hers as they leaned in.

Ashe ran her thumb along her lips. “Nope,” she agreed.

Despite numerous romance novels’ promises of warm tingles and rushes of feeling and an imagination full of long legs — preferably slung over the saddle of her bike — and strong arms meant to be held in, in all of her sixteen years of life Ashe had yet to experience a kiss that wasn’t just wet. Jesse’s had been no different.

McCree gave a chuckle that caught low in the back of his throat like a choke and patted her other hand where it sat pressed flat to the seat of the bench between them. On his other arm, the black lines of his Deadlock tattoo were outlined with angry red and shiny with ointment. Ashe wiped her thumb off on her pants and resisted the urge to reach over their bodies to poke it again.

If they had just taken her along on that job instead of leaving her behind. Her bike was faster than Jesse’s, she would absolutely have beaten him to the convoy. She would have fired first.

“Guess we know now, hey Calamity?” McCree asked. He spoke plain English with her when it was just the two of them, a relief since even after the months since they had joined the Deadlock Gang the polyglot of Spanish, English, and Apache they spoke amongst themselves jangled confused in her ears and tangled itself on her tongue.

It was nice, too, to be Calamity again for a time instead of Come-Along Liz, the least appreciated third of the package deal that had netted the gang a huge, biddable omnic and a crack sharpshooter for their use.

She’d show them. The very moment the chance came.

“Yeah,” she agreed. “Got that outta the way, now.”

McCree patted her hand again. “You’re worth more’n jus’ that, anyway,” he said easily, like it was the most obvious thing in the world. He wasn’t talking about money. He never was, when it was her. “Don’ like them thinkin’ that about you.” That was nice too, in another way.

“Well, ain’t you a right gentleman,” Ashe shot back to cover up the soppy rush of feeling he’d given her.

“Ain’t I always?” McCree asked with a faint, crooked smile.

Ashe pulled her attention away from the fresh tattoo on his arm to look him in the face. The fact of the matter was that no matter what the rest of the Deadlock members thought about her or the two of them, it was just impossible to dislike Jesse for it.

“Sure, y’are,” she drawled, shoving her shoulder into his with all of her strength as she did. “Course.”

**Author's Note:**

> Yes, my version of Ashe is aromantic. No, she hasn't quite worked that out for herself yet here, being sixteen, addicted to romance novels, and rather distracted by other facets of her current life (such as joining a biker gang). She'll figure it out, I promise.
> 
> (This is also where part of the 'alternate' part of the Back to the Fold AU really shows, since in this timeline Ashe and McCree weren't the founders of the Deadlock Gang, they joined it. Though Ashe totally re-founded it later, after the Blackwatch/Overwatch raid took the original gang apart.)


End file.
